


The Casanova of the Cosmos

by StellarLibraryLady



Series: Star Trek Incandescent Hearts [3]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: AU, Aging Kirk, Explicit Language, Incandescent Hearts (Star Trek Series), Khirk, M/M, One Shot, Starship Enterprise (Star Trek), spones - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-26
Updated: 2016-11-26
Packaged: 2018-09-02 06:01:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8653558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StellarLibraryLady/pseuds/StellarLibraryLady
Summary: An aging Jim Kirk takes stock of his life without the Enterprise and his old friends.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [William Shatner](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=William+Shatner).



> A One Shot AU honoring William Shatner whose spirit and tenacity gave James T. Kirk his unique qualities of 'vinegar and grit in his craw and a hunger for adventure.' And Shatner's still got it!  
> Thanks also to the incomparable Chris Pine for being the new image of James T. Kirk. The mantle has been passed to worthy shoulders! Whew! Mercy! Has it ever!  
> Thanks to both of you gentlemen for the creation of a man who lives for all of us, now and forever.

So, Jim Kirk's scheming had worked very well, with one unexpected result. McCoy and Spock had each other now, and Jim Kirk had no one. That’s what it amounted to, at least, for Kirk. When all the bullshitting was set aside, that’s the only truth that remained. McCoy and Spock were happy as clams in hot and spicy sauce with each other, and Jim Kirk could just go fuck a duck as far as they were concerned.

That’s why he took out with a skeleton crew on a ship that was nowhere as glorious as the Enterprise had been. Hell, the ship wasn’t even as big as the Enterprise had been, in spirit as well as in size. Well, if Jim Kirk was really honest about it, it wasn’t anything more than a garbage scow. But Kirk was happy with it. And the crew! No other skipper in the universe would hire on that batch of mangy misfits except Jim Kirk. He had to snarl at them and had to practically beat them physically to get them to obey orders. But it made him feel like a kid again, having a surly crew and a mongrel ship. He was back to basics. He’s gotten fat and complacent serving on the genteel Enterprise. Now he could just go out and have some fun, just like in the old days. When he’d first started, long before he hit Starfleet Academy, all he had in his craw was grit and vinegar and a hunger for adventure. He had that back now. He'd take this old tub out on his own, if need be. The rest of the crew could come along if they wanted. But they had to keep up with him. James Tiberius Kirk waited on no man. And he sure as hell didn't follow. The only man to have that honor would be Christopher Pike, God rest him. Chris was the only father figure that Kirk had ever known. Chris knew that Jim was a free spirit. Chris knew where Kirk's place was, and still was, in any group. Be sure about one thing: Kirk was that white-headed old bastard leading the pack! And always would be out front, until he drew his last breath. And then he'd fight for that one, then spit in the eye of Death on his way out. Kirk would make that old bastard think twice about taking on James T. Kirk for a one-way death cruise!

The Federation of Planets didn’t want him anymore. Too many shady goings on, too many messy details for the higher ups to tolerate, too much plain old embarrassments and fuck ups. Fine, he’d work for anyone who would hire him. He could be like a pirate, a jack of all trades.

Well, okay, he did sound like he was in his second childhood. Make that the third, or maybe even the fourth. He’d been having so much fun as the big, bad captain of one of the most illustrious ships in the Federation fleet that it hadn’t really registered with him about those returns to almost juvenile behavior on his part. When other men were retiring, he’d been racing around the galaxies with Spock and McCoy and the others on the Enterprise and having one hell of a time with them. But that time was over.

The first blow was Scotty marrying Uhura and settling down. Uhura and…Scotty?! How in the hell had that happened?! Well, Kirk didn’t really blame Nyota for being pissed when Spock struck up with McCoy. That would deflate any woman’s ego. It hadn’t even been another woman who had turned Spock’s head. It had been a GUY! And Spock had never looked away from McCoy again. Of course, Scotty was thrilled. He who had loved Uhuru from afar for so long had never figured on winning her. Kirk hoped the poor bastard never realized he had gotten Uhura on the rebound. But they were expecting their third kid now, so Uhura must’ve decided that a second choice had been the best choice, after all.

For awhile, Kirk thought that Scotty would just make an honest person out of Keenser, that odd little creature who followed Scotty around so loyally. Nobody really knew what the deal was between those two. After spending all those lonely months together, alone, on that frozen planet, probably almost any scenario would’ve been true. There were rumors that, despite Keenser’s diminutive size in height, the little curiosity was actually hung like a bull elephant and was very talented with the use of that unique organ. Kirk never figured that Scotty had leanings in that direction. But Kirk also knew that Scotty could not exist without the little fellow in his life, despite Scotty’s blustering to the contrary. At this time, Keenser was living in the Scott household as a sort of older brother/uncle/companion to Scotty and Uhura’s little girls.

The second blow that split up Kirk’s happy space family was Sulu quitting space travel and settling down so that his little girl would grow up with both parents in her life. After a few narrow escapes while serving on the Enterprise, Sulu decided that he had to think about somebody beside himself for a change. His life partner was naturally thrilled, also. Kirk wondered, though, if Sulu sometimes missed the adventure and fun of space exploring. He always thought that Sulu would have made a talented Starfleet captain.

Christine Chapel was no longer available to be McCoy’s trusted nurse. Having had her heart broken too many times after secret crushes on Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, she had gone to medical school and had become a doctor herself. She’d had to struggle to get her degree. It is always more difficult for a more mature person to return to school than it is to keep schooling going as a young adult. People naturally lose their ability to study, also. So Christine was to be admired. The last Kirk had heard from her, she had adopted not only two young children but a woman without family to be grandmother to the children. Also present in the growing household was a live-in cook/housekeeper and her husband who was groundskeeper. Christine said that the couple was also like an aunt and uncle to her two young children. Kirk was happy for her. Christine finally had a family that loved her back.

Of course, one of the biggest blows to Kirk was that the poor Enterprise had finally gasped her last breath, and it had been a painful death for the gallant Starship. After so many times of going through overhauling, and not to mention, just plain being rebuilt, the decision was made to decommission the sad, old heap and just let her glorious name pass into legend and memory. Of course, Jim’s old crew could’ve formed again and gone on with a new ship, but that wasn’t meant to happen. Life had moved on for all of them, and the team had scattered permanently. 

For one of them, the move was irretrievably permanent. The worst blow was the loss of Pavel Chekov, and it hadn’t even happened in space. A bizarre accident at his home on Earth had snuffed out the life of one who should not have died so young. So much potential, so much earnestness, so much heart had been lost with his really untimely death. Kirk decided that Life sometimes just didn’t seem fair or make sense. Pavel was truly a sweet, beautiful person who was lost way too soon.

Bad as the loss of Chekov was, the final blow to Jim Kirk’s equilibrium was, of course, Spock and McCoy getting together. Since they could only see each other now, that meant that they couldn’t see Jim at all. So that left him on this garbage scow by himself. But that was alright. Jim Kirk could always adjust. He was a lemonade type of guy. You know, if Life hands you lemons, make lemonade. Even if you didn’t like lemonade, you could still make it. It was the methodology and the reasons for doing something, not the results, that were important.

But it still kind of smarted sometimes about Spock and Bones. Kirk had always thought that their threesome would always just go on together forever. He‘d never thought that arrangement out to its logical ending, however. Had Kirk visualized that all of them would someday be interred together in some huge crypt? That the last one to die would just be tossed in the hole on top of the other two? Would that mean that Spock, a Vulcan whose life span was naturally longer, would be on top of the stack? And McCoy, already the oldest of the group, would be the bottom layer? It would be just fine for Kirk. He could smell that sweet Vulcan ass of Spock's for eternity. Kirk could think of worse fates. But McCoy would be lined up to smell Kirk's rear-end. That might not such a treat for McCoy, especially if Kirk's chronic dyspepsia acted up. Of course, they could be stacked feet to heads with middle layer Kirk facing the opposite direction of the other two. Or maybe criss-cross, with everyone at right angles to everyone else? From above, would they look like some sort of wheel with six spokes? Would McCoy bitch and moan about any of these arrangements? Of course, McCoy would! He always liked to have something to bitch and moan about, so why would this situation be any different? Would McCoy just be happy to have something handy to complain about so he wouldn’t have to hunt around? A handy rant for McCoy! Just what he had always wanted!

And Spock would needle McCoy just to hear him holler. And Kirk would egg the bickering along because it meant home and family to him. It was familiar. And the three would hang out together, picking at each other, being company for each other, living in each other.

When in the hell had the three of them gotten to be such old women, anyway?!

But, then, all of that had changed when Spock and McCoy had gotten together. But Kirk shouldn’t complain about that outcome, should he? After all, he was the pissy-assed Cupid who had gotten them together! He’d always wanted his two friends to be more compatible. He just hadn’t figured that they’d become THAT compatible! What those two had now was WAY beyond compatibility! Sometimes, it was simply too sickening to watch. All that lovey dovey, choochy cooing from the two of them got old real fast. Maybe, though, when the honeymoon period wore off, they’d be a little bit more jaded with each other and a whole lot easier to be around. They might even notice Kirk, and the rest of the universe, again. Of course, they’d been together for a little more than eight Earth years now, and the honeymoon between them still seemed to be rolling along pretty strong. Kirk just hoped they kept an ample supply of lube handy. Probably, though, they’d just be content to simply look into each others' eyes or watch a sunset quietly together or a hundred other things that Kirk could list. They probably didn’t even have to touch each other to find fulfillment. It was enough to make a guy gag. Or envious.

Kirk was happy for them, however. They’d paid their dues in misery before that time. Then they had simply stopped, looked honestly at each other, and KNEW. They simply KNEW. And that’s all it had taken. They’d been together ever since.

No, Kirk didn’t want them back the old way, unhappy and miserable. He was just plain jealous, though. They had found everything that they had ever wanted or needed in each other. He wanted what they had.

And he might yet get that kind of relationship. Khan Noonien Singh was no longer the rogue and terror he once was. Presently, Khan was working at Starfleet Academy in a ‘To Catch a Thief‘ type of advisory role. If you wanted to catch a bad guy, have a former bad guy track him down. Khan's assistance was also proving to be invaluable with peacekeeping in the universe. That was supposed to have been Khan's original purpose, Lo! those many centuries ago!

Kirk and Khan were equals, two of a kind, almost two sides of the same coin. But something physical was there between them, too. Kirk would like to explore the possibilities with Khan just as soon as Kirk’s vagabond life began to bore him and the ladies stopped returning his interested glances. Yeah, his blonde hair was mostly white now, people were beginning to mumble more around him, and apparently he forgot a few facts along the way. But when it came to the ladies, he still remembered what went where. And, if those abilities eventually failed him, there would always be Khan to soothe, to bolster, to understand his old man ways. Because Khan would be in the same boat. Damn bastard better be! He was Kirk's ace in the hole, the constant that had been promised to his heart, the Augment that was his true soul mate. They just didn't need to be breathing each others' breath for awhile. Yes, Khan was waiting in the wings, and Kirk would probably go there someday. Maybe they could travel back to Narsarya B, make a life for themselves, be company for each other, and just be together. They would find fulfillment with a quieter life, and there would be satisfaction in small victories that arise on a daily basis the come with a simpler way of living. Kirk wouldn’t mind settling for contentment with a person who needed him so much. And who Kirk would need so much right back, by then. 

Yes, Jim Kirk and Khan Noonien Singh could have a good life together in the future, it was true. They, like Spock and McCoy, could became the universe for each other, in time.

Just! 

Not!

Yet!!!

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing dealing with Star Trek, including story lines and/or characters.


End file.
